title: What patients want: preferences regarding hospital pharmacy services.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of hospital pharmacists has evolved over the past couple of decades from preparation and distribution of medications to active involvement in health care teams, through identification and resolution of patients' medication-related issues in an effort to improve patient outcomes. However, patients' preferences about pharmacy services are not well known.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To use content analysis of open-ended survey responses from recently discharged patients to determine desired pharmacy services.
  
  
  METHODS
  Former inpatients were randomly selected for participation in a telephone survey following discharge from acute care hospitals in the Horizon Health Network in New Brunswick. The survey included the question, "What service or information would you like a pharmacist to provide in the hospital that would most help you in managing your medications?" For responses to this question, 2 raters established response categories, obtained acceptable inter-rater agreement, and independently scored the responses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four global categories of responses were obtained, each having multiple subcategories. Of the 703 responses (from 325 respondents), 445 (63.3%) were related to the category "information about medications", including purpose, adherence, and side effects. The second most common response category was "self-disclosure" (167 [23.8%]), including experiences with pharmacies, medications, or hospitals. Less frequently, responses pertained to "pharmacy services" (54 [7.7%]), such as medication costs and continuity of care, and to "information source for medications" (37 [5.3%]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most respondents to this survey wanted hospital pharmacists to provide a general medication overview, including information about side effects and interactions, during their admission. The results suggest that many patients are unaware of other potential clinical services that pharmacists can provide. A future study could assess patients' willingness to select from a guiding list of potential clinical services.
authors.affiliation: , PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.
authors.forename: Odette
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buckley
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Doucette
keywords: clinical pharmacy services; expanded pharmacy services; patient expectations